EuroStack Initiative Foundation
Think-tank proposing a €300bn vertically integrated European digital stack as an alternative to US hyperscaler dependency.
Last refreshed: 23 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Is €300bn over a decade achievable, or is EuroStack a policy aspiration without a funding mechanism?
Timeline for EuroStack Initiative Foundation
Placed vertical European compute stack proposal on summit agenda via Caffarra keynote
European Tech Sovereignty: Brussels sovereignty summit opens without European AI builders- What is the EuroStack proposal and how much would it cost?
- The EuroStack Initiative Foundation proposes building a vertically integrated European digital stack across cloud, AI, semiconductors, and platforms. The estimated investment is roughly €300bn over a decade. The EU currently depends on non-EU sources for more than 80% of its digital products.Source: EuroStack Initiative Foundation / Bertelsmann Stiftung
- Is EuroStack backed by the European Commission?
- EuroStack is an independent think-tank proposal, not a Commission programme. However, its framing has influenced Commission policy debates including the Draghi Report and the Cloud and AI Development Act. The Commission's own procurement frameworks are smaller in scale and include compromises the EuroStack thesis argues perpetuate dependency.Source: Bertelsmann Stiftung / EuroStack Foundation
Background
The EuroStack Initiative Foundation is the organisation behind Europe's most ambitious proposal for a vertically integrated digital infrastructure independent of US hyperscalers. Founded and chaired by economist Cristina Caffarra, it proposes a European stack spanning cloud infrastructure, AI model development, semiconductor capacity, and digital platforms, estimated at roughly €300bn of investment over a decade. The Foundation delivers its most prominent platform appearance to date at the inaugural Sovereign Tech Europe summit in Brussels on 23 April 2026, when Caffarra gives the afternoon keynote .
The EuroStack thesis is grounded in the observation that EU regulatory instruments — the DMA, AI Act, Chips Act — address market behaviour without addressing structural dependency. The EU currently imports more than 80% of its digital products and services; European companies account for just 7% of global software and internet R&D spending. Regulatory fines and interoperability mandates cannot by themselves close a gap of this scale. The EuroStack frame argues that only a supply-side industrial programme, funded at the scale of a modern Marshall Plan, can shift the structural balance.
The Foundation's work has been supported by Bertelsmann Stiftung, and its proposals have fed into the Draghi Report recommendations and subsequent Commission policy discussions on CADA. Its framing sits in tension with the Commission's pragmatic procurement approach, exemplified by the €180m sovereign cloud framework that included a Google joint venture at the minimum sovereignty tier .
